Saturday, 21 April 2018

ONSET: Stay of Execution

Front Cover

Synopsis

The Vampire War is over.The United States is reeling.The Masquerade is fragmenting.The Apocalypse is here…

The long and bloody war with the vampires in the United States has finally ended, thanks to the efforts of the vampire Arbiter and ONSET Commander David White—and a nuclear explosion on American soil.The final battle proves harder to conceal than hoped, however, and a series of high profile incidents end any chance of hiding the supernatural. Suddenly the world is faced with the fact that it is both more wonderful and more terrible than humanity ever realized.

But as the US Government struggles to adapt to this new reality, old enemies have set into motion plans that could render humanity’s struggles irrelevant. There are those beyond the Seal who were once Gods…and they want their planet back!

My Review

This is the fourth book in the series and for those who haven't read the other proceeding books then this review will probably leave you lost.I'm a big fan of Glynn Stewart's Onset series and after the ending of the third book, I was excited to continue the story.The fourth instalment picks up immediately from the third and Commander White continues to be as resolute and heroic as any superhero. There is a rather big shift in trajectory from the other books in that the whole world have come to learn that the supernatural exist and the story deals with the fall out of such discovery and there's also a small thing about an impending apocalypse. Whilst the book is around 300 odd pages long, there is a huge amount of things going on, and the plot never rests. Whilst that made it a quick read, I didn't quite get the same level of enjoyment as the other books. The main reason being that there I didn't feel there was enough depth to the storyline and characterisation - which I can understand given the frantic pace of the book - and in the end it felt slightly hollow to me.But don't get me wrong, I thoroughly enjoyed the book and I really hope that Glynn Stewart continues the series as there is so much potential in terms of storyline.

Conclusion

If you've read the other books in the series then I don't even need to sell it to you. Whilst not Stewart's best, it still sits comfortably better than most other supernatural books. For those who haven't read the Onset series, and you're a fan of urban fantasy, then you're missing out on a collection of books that are fun, action packed, filled with heroic characters and provides that little escapism that we are looking for.